Version 8 of the PreDesigner [Lens Calculator] for Android has been released and is in the Google Playstore. Version 8 has three main enhancements:
- sliders for each parameter for quick, precise changes
- improved handling for users with hardware keyboards
- reduction in the number of required Android permissions from five to two!

This screen capture shows the sliders for two of the parameters.

Sliders

There are now sliders for quick, precise adjustment of each parameter. These sliders have user definable upper and lower limits.

In order to keep the interface as clean as possible, the sliders are initially hidden from view.
- to show/hide a slider, tap the parameter name.
- to show/hide the slider limit edit boxes, long press the parameter name.
On either side of each slider are two arrow buttons, to enable single stepping [especially for users with the soft keyboard]

Navigation with hardware keyboard

An increasing number of users with tablets now have bluetooth keyboards. Such users often want to move around the app widgets using the tab and arrow keys. This has been made much simpler with:
- clear ‘tab’ progression along each row and from row to row in the parameter area
- the ‘current’ widget is highlighted.

Reduced Android permissions

In version 5 we added some social features [share, ‘like’ using the google +1 button & Qioptiq tweet feed]. These required the user of Android permissions, some of which may have seemed overly intrusive. We see from our stats that a significant percentage of users has not upgraded despite all the benefits in versions 5, 6 & 7.

We have therefore taken stock and reduced the permission count from five to two, by:
- removing the google+1 button [this got rid of the most intrusive permissions]
- rewriting the share screen capture option, so the graphic [jpg] was saved to the private app storage, rather than the general third party storage.
The two permissions left enable the app to check the Qioptiq twitter feed every now and then.

We do hope that this reduction will encourage those v4 users to update!